forrest-dev mailing list archives

Now that Forrest is a top-level Apache project, one of
our jobs is to produce the "Project Guidelines". I just
committed the initial document. I looked at some other
projects, borrowed content from here-and-there, added
some of my own.
The first task is to get our "Roles and Responsibilities"
sorted, then we can go on to other things like "Voting".
It is hard, but we need to keep definitions to a minimum
and not waffle on too much.
Here is the current content. Please everyone send feedback
to this list. Current committers can tweak the xdoc at
guidelines.xml but please discuss major changes.
This initial document is intended as a discussion starter.
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This document provides the guidelines under which the
Apache Forrest project operates. It defines the roles
and responsibilities, who may vote, how voting works,
how conflicts are resolved, etc. The Forrest project was
established in January 2002 and became a top-level project
in May 2004.
Forrest is a project of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
which holds the copyright for all Apache projects. The ASF
website explains the operation and background of the ASF.
Mission
-------
The generation of aggregated multi-channel documentation,
maintaining a separation of content and presentation.
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Roles and Responsibilities
--------------------------
Users
-----
These are the people who download the software and use
it for their own purposes.
Contributers
------------
These people are users who go the extra step to provide
feedback, assist other users, contribute discussion,
use-cases, minor patches, etc. They would participate
primarily on the "user" mailing list.
Developers
----------
These people are contributers who make more substantial
contributions. They get more involved in discussion,
especially discussion about design issues, help with
solving major issues, provide patches with new and
improved functionality. They would participate on both
the "dev" and "user" mailing lists.
Committers
----------
When developers remain with the project and demonstrate
commitment to the project in various ways, then they
will be noticed and invited to become committers. After
a successful vote, they are provided with a user account
and commit access to the source repository, which enables
them to be far more productive. This is meritocracy - they
are given more responsibility and can do more work.
The responsibilities of committers include:
* Ensuring that they do not add code that has copyright
and license issues.
* Keeping oversight of the commit log messages.
All Apache committers are required to have a signed
Contributor License Agreement (CLA) recorded on file with
the Apache Software Foundation. The Committer FAQ provides
more details about the requirements for committers.
Project Management Committee (PMC)
----------------------------------
The PMC is responsible to the Board and the ASF for the
management and oversight of the Apache Forrest codebase
and community. Any committer who so chooses can be on
the PMC. The responsibilities include:
* Resolving license disputes regarding products of the
project, including other supporting software that is
re-distributed.
* Deciding what is distributed as products of the project.
In particular all releases must be approved by the PMC.
* Maintaining the project's shared resources, including
the codebase repository, mailing lists, websites.
* Speaking on behalf of the project.
* Maintaining these and other guidelines of the project.
The PMC does have a private mailing list on which it can
discuss certain issues. However this list is rarely used
and every effort is made to conduct all discussion on the
public mailing lists.
The chair person of the PMC is appointed by the ASF board.
The chair is an office holder of the Apache Software
Foundation (Vice President, Apache Forrest) and has
primary responsibility to the board for the management of
the project, within the scope of the Forrest PMC. The chair
provides quarterly reports to the board about developments
within the Forrest project. The PMC may consider the
position of PMC chair annually, and may recommend a new
chair to the board. Ultimately, however, it is the board's
responsibility who it chooses to appoint as the PMC chair.
FIXME: Add the reasons why committers would want to be
on the PMC (e.g. legal protection; guide the direction
of the project; etc.).
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